Recording a full, electric band in the studio, all playing together live with no overdubs, using a single microphone.

But so goes the premise for OneMic Series, a fascinating project by engineer/producer John Cuniberti, known for his work with guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani as well as PJ Harvey, Neville Brothers, Sammy Hagar and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

An AEA R88 stereo ribbon microphone is the "one mic" in the One Mic series.

Sonically, the recordings Cuniberti captured of his latest subject, Alabama band The Dozens, at famed Sheffield studio Muscle Shoals Sound, are pretty amazing.

The band didn't even use headphones to hear themselves, as a recording artist normally would, during the sessions. "The overall volume was much, much lower than we normally perform at, so that did help with hearing ourselves," says The Dozens guitarist Travis Posey, who plays slashing slide on the first track released from their OneMic session, the churning "Tidal Wave." "We knew this prior to the session and actually had a couple rehearsals at low volumes to get used to it."

For The Dozen's OneMic session, Cuniberti set up his microphone in the middle of the Muscle Shoals Sound studio floor.

To get the band's sound balanced, he started with drums and bass, moving the instruments and amps backwards and forwards to find sweet spots.

Remember, since just one mic is used, these sessions couldn't use the multi-mic (for example, drums are typically cut using no less than three microphones) and multitrack mixing capabilities studios have used for decades to balance tracks after they're recorded.

For OneMic, that balance must be achieved on the fly by the musicians' volume, touch and placement. It's somewhat analogous to filming a long, single-shot scene for film or TV.

While professionally recording, say, a small acoustic act or classical ensemble or vintage roots music using a single mic is not unheard of, doing so with a full electric rock band - and doing it well - in 2018 is uncommon to say the least.

After The Dozens' instrumentalists were balanced and set, Cuniberti worked with the band's singer Shelley Butler to determine the best distance for her to stand from the microphone.

"We all had to be very dynamic," Posey says. "Shelley had to move back and forth to control her volume." Normally a self-described "pretty loud" player, for the OneMic sessions Posey used an 18-watt Suhr amp with Power Scaling, a feature emulating a cranked larger amp but at non-deafening decibels, so he didn't have to use effects pedals to achieve hot tones at low volume.

So far, OneMic has featured at least 10 other artists, including former Black Crowes guitarist Jackie Green.

The goal of the series? To recapture "a level of musical intimacy" Cuniberti feels can be lost with multi-tracking. Each OneMic act performs two songs, and the signal path includes a Millennia HV3c preamp and Pro Tools rig. The sessions are also captured on video.

The Dozen's first OneMic clip, for "Tidal Wave" off the band's 2015 EP "Test," was posted on YouTube June 19. Their follow-up video, of soulful ballad "Gravity's Pushing," one of AL.com's "Must Hear 2015 Songs from North Alabama Artists," is set for July 17.

"I think we did both songs maybe five or six times each and he took the best cut," Posey says. " John is an engineering and mastering genius to get such an incredible sound from a six-piece band live around one stereo ribbon mic."

The Dozens' band members reside across North Alabama. Their lineup also boasts drummer (and Shelley's husband) Steven Butler, guitarist Chip Dews, bassist Brent Irvin and keyboardist Dan Hocter. Cuniberti picked them to be a part of his series, Posey says, based on the band's sound and a hunch "they could actually pull the one-mic thing off."